Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the issue of surveillance in our country, and the efforts of this Congress to reform our laws in a way that protects both our national security and our individual freedoms.

Over the past several months, competing legislation from the House and Senate has repeatedly come to a vote in an effort to reform existing FISA laws. I have great respect for the men and women working to see this come to light, but am dismayed at the unwillingness of some on both sides of the aisle to seek consensus on this important issue.

For me and my constituents, the issue is clear: that a terrorist threat exists, and we cannot deny our intelligence community a necessary tool in the fight against this global threat. To see this done, we must work quickly to reach an agreement within the House and Senate that can become law. The Senate has already passed such a bill, and I again urge my colleagues in the House to consider that legislation.

I would like to add that these negotiations reached some of their most heated moments just as the Congress's district work period was upon us. Away from Washington's heated political rhetoric, I spent two weeks with my constituents as I traveled the 10,000 square miles in my district holding town hall meetings. It is revealing to me that folks back home wanted to talk with me about health care and energy costs, but on rare occasion did anyone come forward to discuss FISA. I can only take away from this that they expect us to pass a bill that protects their safety and their civil liberties with expediency so we can return to the business of addressing their most immediate concerns.

There are those who have said that an agreement is on the horizon, and I commend our leadership in their efforts to make this happen. I look forward to casting my vote for legislation that provides the intelligence community with an effective means to conduct surveillance on the enemies of this nation. Moreover, in this time of uncertainty at home and unrest overseas, we cannot confuse our friends with our enemies by failing to protect those who aided the government in seeking out terrorist threats after September 11th. The final version of this bill must contain legal protection for the industries that faithfully answered their country's call for help in a time of need.

I have great hope that common sense, and the needs of our safety and security will prevail in this effort, and I look forward to seeing us pass a bill in the near future.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to commend and congratulate the life's work of Master Distiller Jimmy Bedford, the craftsman behind the smooth and distinct Jack Daniels whiskey that flows out of Lynchburg, Tennessee, every year.

For years, Jimmy studied his trade under the tutelage of one-time Master Distiller Frank Bobo. When Frank retired, Jimmy took the reigns of the milling, yeasting, fermentation, distillation, and charcoal mellowing of the long lived Jack Daniels recipe. For 20 years, Jimmy has safeguarded this Tennessee tradition in Lynchburg's quiet hollow as the sixth Master Distiller in Jack Daniels history.

Throughout Jimmy's tenure at the distillery, Jack Daniels has seen its yearly sales rise from under one million to nearly ten million cases in just forty years, with shipments going out to 135 countries around the world every year; but, no matter where people are drinking their whiskey, whether overseas, along the coasts or right in the heart of Tennessee, they know now, as they have for twenty years, that every bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey comes to them with Jimmy Bedford's approval.

This year, Jimmy will retire to his farm just two miles up the road from the distillery he served for so long. While it is sad to see him go, we can trust that Jimmy will leave this icon of Tennessee and American culture in the hands of an able and dedicated successor. Jimmy retires this month with our blessing, but it is my sincere hope that before he steps down we might impress upon him our gratitude for his stalwart preservation of this lasting Tennessee tradition.

Madam Speaker, this January, Bill Boss of Tullahoma, Tennessee, received the Tennessee Titans 2007 Community Quarterback Award, and I rise today to congratulate his service to our community, our state, and our country.

Nearly thirty years ago, Bill completed his service to our armed forces and retired as an officer of the United States Air Force. For Bill, his time as one of America's finest was only the beginning of a life dedicated to his community and the betterment of those around him.

After retiring from the Air Force, Bill began a career as a research engineer for the University of Tennessee Space Institute. It was there that Bill met with friends and colleagues to discuss how they could use their scientific expertise to give young students in Coffee County, Tennessee, and across the state an opportunity to discover the sciences for themselves. Only seven years later, Boss's diligence proved successful and helped open the Tullahoma Hands-On Science Center.

Today, 10,000 eager young learners visit the Hands-On Science Center every year as it continues to provide a forum that engages and enthralls the scientists of tomorrow. I commend Bill for his efforts, and proudly stand to congratulate him today for an award well earned in service to Coffee County students and all those aspiring scholars across the State of Tennessee.

Madam Speaker, this year, 25,000 individuals from the automobile industry converged to honor the nominees for Time Magazine's ``Dealer of the Year'' Award. Today, I'm proud to congratulate Stan McNabb of Tullahoma, Tennessee, on his nomination for the 2008 Time Magazine Dealer of the Year. This prestigious honor is a tribute to his exceptional performance as an auto dealer and his steadfast commitment to community service, and I rise today to recognize Stan's dedication to his trade and to the people of Coffee County.

Robert Weaver, President of the Tennessee Automotive Association, nominated Stan to represent Tennessee as one of the 51 dealers who will compete as finalists for ``Dealer of the Year,'' an award that required a demonstration of successful auto-dealing as well as an ongoing dedication to community service.

Stan, who earned his degree from Middle Tennessee State University, sold cars as a young man at a Chevrolet dealership and quickly discovered that his passion for automobiles could develop into a career. Stan bought his first dealership in 1980, and now owns three businesses in middle Tennessee. In addition, Stan has used his success in business to contribute to the State. As a board member of ``Partners for Healing,'' an organization meant to provide help and support to the working uninsured in Coffee County, Tennessee, Stan exemplifies a charitable spirit that is a model for business owners across the State.

It is a privilege to congratulate Stan McNabb on his nomination for this award, and to recognize him for his success and service.

Madam Speaker, a great friend of farmers in my district and across the Volunteer State retired from thirty years of dedicated service to the Farm Bureau this year. Carl Lawrence served the Giles County Farm Bureau with distinction in service to the hard working farmers of Tennessee, and I proudly rise today to commend him for a lifetime of work for our agriculture community.

After serving his country as a combat soldier in Vietnam, Carl returned to the state he honorably defended overseas and joined the Farm Bureau in Rutledge, Tennessee. There, he earned a reputation for dedicated management and quickly earned a promotion for his hard work and diligence. Carl's efforts helped swell the ranks at Giles County Farm Bureau, from 1,600 to nearly 5,000 members, and did a great deal to ensure that the local Farm Bureau did everything it could to aid farmers throughout the county.

For all he has done, I am proud to join the Farm Bureau of Giles County in wishing Carl Lawrence a happy retirement and recognize him for a career well spent in service to the farmers of Tennessee.

I thank the gentleman from Memphis, and deeply appreciate your management today of this resolution that we are discussing here on the U.S. House floor.

The tornados and storms and winds that recently tore across the South wrought upon each of our States the tragedy of loss of lives and families being separated. By now all of us have seen the images of fallen trees and toppled homes and, one by one, Tennesseans and other Southerners affected by this disaster have begun the seemingly impossible task of piecing their lives together, clearing wreckage, mourning the lost, and recovering whatever the storm failed to claim.

Our planet, for all its blessings, chooses indiscriminately at times to affront our shores, plains, valleys and farmlands with terrible acts. I'm proud to say, though, as we face the worst of the forces we cannot control, we continue to see the best of the humanitarian spirit that is very much within our power to command.

In this time of need, volunteer associations from the United Way to the Red Cross helped bring aid and comfort to the affected. Within days of the tornados' passing, the Red Cross alone helped provide shelter, comfort and over 44,000 meals with the help of nearly 1,600 Red Cross staff and volunteers in Tennessee alone.

Our local sheriff's departments and volunteer fire departments, neighbors, friends, those from the farm next door or the neighbor next door that may not have lost their home gathered together to offer a shoulder of condolence, hope for the future, and concern and compassion for those affected.

It was not long ago that the people of New Orleans endured the worst of what can happen when we fail to act. And in the wake of the storms in Tennessee and the South, we have shown that we will never commit the sin of inaction again. This week and last, we have shown there is no tornado so powerful, no storm so terrible that the winds of compassion cannot restore and repair any damage brought upon us.

We rise today to honor the losses of those affected, to grieve for those who were so callously and abruptly taken from us that night, and we placed a renewal of our great country and our States in the wake of this storm.

Madam Speaker, on November 25th, 1946, at 7:00 p.m., Robert McKay, Jr. put WKRM on the air from the Bethell Hotel in Columbia, Tennessee for the very first time. Over sixty years later, Robert continues to provide quality broadcasting to the people of Columbia.

Robert's service to Columbia, to Tennessee and to our country goes beyond his work at WKRM. A veteran of World War II, Robert served our military in the Philippines from 1942 until the War's end. When he returned, Robert took it upon himself to found the area's first local radio station with its own News Director.

Since its founding, WKRM has continually provided Maury County with outstanding news coverage, bringing the news to Columbia and its surrounding areas and, beginning in 1947, covering the annual Mule Day celebration live from the front porch of WKRM's station.

From their inaugural broadcast at the Bethell Hotel, Robert's tenacity has made WKRM the success that it is today. Even a devastating fire in 1950 that destroyed all but the station's antenna only kept WKRM off the air for thirteen days before Robert was again bringing news to Columbia. Robert's firm resolve has grown WKRM into two stations that he continues to operate today. At eighty-seven year's old, Robert is still working hard for Tennessee, and I join my colleagues today in commending him for his work, his life and his service.

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of this bill and the effort by this Congress to bring accountability to the war in Iraq.

This war is in desperate need of a new direction. For nearly 5 years, our brave men and women have valiantly toed the line for this administration, and I'm proud to say that they have had great successes in their mission. We have seen a terrible dictator overthrown, tried and put to death, and in his place the people of Iraq carried out free and open elections. For all of this, we owe our soldiers and their families a debt of thanks.

But today's debate is not about the purpose of this war. We are here to make a decision on how best to bring accountability to this engagement. Today's legislation will keep soldiers on the ground to oversee diplomatic missions, protect U.S. citizens, equip and train Iraqis to stand on their own and continue to engage in targeted attacks on terrorists as we seek them out. This is a responsible strategy that worked for Eisenhower in South Korea when troops remained to oversee the DMZ after major operations had ended, and it can work for America today in Iraq.

However, I have long felt that it is time to remove our men and women from the kill zones of Iraq. Our soldiers are trained to do the job of the United States military, not the job of police-on-the-beat for the nation of Iraq. We need to redeploy our troops so they can continue to carry out the work of defending America from terrorist threats around the globe. It is time for the Iraqis to occupy their own country with their own military and police force.

This bill begins the redeployment of our combat troops, while continuing to fund initiatives for our men and women that protect them from IEDs, traumatic brain injury and more. But the days of a blank check from this Congress must come to an end. The American people deserve a new direction in Iraq, and this legislation is an important step.

I would like to add that I bristle when I hear the other side talk of ``cut and run'' Democrats. The legacy of the Democratic Party is one of great wartime leaders. Andrew Jackson may have done the cutting at the Battle of New Orleans, but it was Colonel Packingham who did the running. It was President Wilson who convinced the American people to take on the oppressors in the First World War. It was President Roosevelt who said ``we have nothing to fear but fear itself'' before leading the charge into the battlefields of Asia and Nazi Germany. And it was President Truman who ended that war by dropping a nuclear weapon.

I am a member of a Democratic Party that has never cut and run, but has been responsible with our men and women in regard to their safety and families, as well as our national security. We need a change in Iraq and a change in course. This must happen.

Madam Speaker, on Friday, November 9, 2007, I was absent from the House in order to attend to an illness in my family.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate James Hill, an 83-year-old service veteran from Elora, Tennessee. When Napoleon Bonaparte created the French Legion of Honor in 1802 to recognize service to the Nation of France, he could not have imagined that the newly formed United States of America would come to the rescue of his then empire nearly one and a half centuries after its creation.

Yesterday, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France came to Washington to present the distinguished French Legion of Honor to six American veterans from the Second World War to honor and thank them for their sacrifice in the liberation of France from Nazi Germany. I am pleased to know that James Hill was among them.

It was June 6th, 1944 that the battle of Normandy began, bringing James and other members of the Army's 116th Infantry unit to Omaha Beach for one of the defining moments of the War, and our Nation's history. James was wounded in the battle and spent three months in a British hospital, only to return from his injuries to fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

While the loss of life on all sides was immense, our Country will forever remember the Second World War as a defining point in our history. Before the War, the American military machine was not what it is today, but we stood together as a Nation nonetheless, with the Allied powers around the world, to fight for the freedom of our neighbors and ourselves. I could not be prouder of what men and women of courage like James Hill have done for our Country, or more pleased to see that James was awarded this prestigious honor.

I would like to ask my colleagues today to join me in recognizing James Hill for what he did to defend the people of France, the United States and freedom across the globe.

Madam Speaker, on Wednesday, October 31, 2007, I was absent from the House in order to attend a ceremony in honor of a new mission for the Tennessee Air National Guard's 118th Airlift Wing. Had I been present I would have voted:

On rollcall No. 1021, No. 1022 and No. 1023, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to have my name removed as a cosponsor of H. Res. 106.

To the gentleman from Arkansas, thanks very much for your leadership on many of the issues that our Blue Dog Coalition championed here in the House. We championed them for many years, about 1994, 1995, when the Blue Dogs were established.

Basically, this group of individuals initially offered both sides, both caucuses, the opportunity to participate in the Blue Dogs, Republican and Democrats alike.

I have always continued to feel very confident that in America today we need American Democrats and American Republicans more than ever. What I mean by that is that we need Americans first and political parties next. Certainly those two political parties have done a tremendous job in driving many of the debates on many of the important issues important in America.

It has also given America a history as being the country in the world that championed civil rights, individual rights, and civil liberties; and we continue to do that. In many cases, as we

have engaged in battlefields throughout history, it has been to bring about democracy and freedom.

But as we talk about this, I want to digress just a moment and talk about a particular situation that is being considered today, which will be what's called combat training for our airmen. In many cases we put our soldiers who are in the Air Force in the battlefield, the battle zones, in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, in my opinion, without proper training for EMS, in the event there is something that happens that they are in the battlefield, they may be injured. I don't think they are properly trained, and, in many cases, we need to do that. So we are actually talking now about locating CBAT, which will be combat training for airmen in different areas.

I want to read a comment that I have prepared for the potential location of this particular facility.

From the Manhattan Project to TVA to the Apollo project to the Spallation Neutron Source and so much more, the Tennessee Valley Corridor and its key institutions, communities, businesses, and congressional leaders have always exemplified the phrase, ``National Leadership through Regional Cooperation.''

Key leaders in our region continue to support our Nation by working to enhance and advance the corridor's key science technology and national security assets.

With that, one of the big challenges in warfare is adequate training for our combat troops. Afghanistan and Iraq have placed a new demand on the airmen of our Air Force for needed combat air support. These increased demands include prison guard duty, combat convoy support, and significant expanded security force duty.

With these additional responsibilities, the Air Force has acknowledged its airmen are lacking the ground combat skills necessary to meet today's demands. To address these needs, the Air Force has proposed, as former Air Force Secretary Roche has described it, a new program to ``bring together our battlefield airmen under a common training and organization structure to strengthen the combat power they bring to the fight.''

Weapons training, tactical field cooperation operations and land navigation training, basic combat skills, physical fitness training and basic medical training will be a part of the core curriculum provided by new Common Battlefield Airman Training (CBAT) program.

The proposed location for this new Common Battlefield Airman Training program has now been narrowed down to three potential sites, one of which is in my district, Arnold Engineering Development Center in Arnold Air Force Base near Tullahoma, Tennessee.

Key leaders in the Tennessee Valley Corridor and I are convinced that establishing CBAT at Arnold Air Force Base would be the best course of action, an exceptional investment for the Air Force and the Nation. Arnold Air Force Base and the Arnold Engineering Development Center are already home to the world's premier flight simulations testing facility and continue to be vital national resources in the development of many of the Nation's top priority aerospace and national defense programs.

Arnold, with its history of extensive combat training during World War II, had abundant land available for CBAT training, with a dedicated 200-acre campus, small arms firing range and 9,000 acres for additional required training. In short, middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Corridor have a world-class facility ready and willing to house this important new training operation.

The Coffee County community, the middle Tennessee/north Alabama region and, indeed, the entire Tennessee Valley Corridor strongly support our Nation's Armed Forces and their training needs as they continue to serve and defend our Nation. A better trained corps of airmen will not only give them the ability to operate more effectively in a combat zone and a better chance of survival, but will also help them better defend the United States in our post-9/11 world.

I strongly support and encourage all others to support Arnold Air Force Base's pursuit of this new CBAT program.

As we continue to train our soldiers who are on the battlefields throughout the world, certainly in the two hot spots today, perhaps we should say three, which would also include the area around the Balkans, we need to adequately train them. It's not right; it's not American to send someone into the battlefield without being properly trained.

I know we have others who want to speak here tonight; but I would like, if I could, before I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas, I would like to read an editorial that I sent to one of our local papers, and it deals with PAYGO, as we will address our deficits here in Congress:

``At a time when the White House is attempting to position the Republican Party as fiscally responsible, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan bluntly said in his new book `The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World' that his party over the past several years put politics over fiscal discipline and lower government spending.'' At least one honest Republican.

``During the past several years while we were witnessing the largest growth of government since the 1960s and a ballooning deficit, Mr. Greenspan was correct in advocating for a return to pay-as-you-go rules. These rules, re-enacted earlier this year after they helped restore fiscal discipline in Washington during the 1990s, require Congress to offset the cost of new spending or tax cuts with savings elsewhere.

``The Blue Dog Coalition, a growing band of deficit hawk Democrats with a deep commitment to the financial stability and national security of the United States, has been pushing to reimplement PAYGO for several years. Their bark was finally heard earlier this year when they pushed the new congressional leadership to enforce the policy.

``When PAYGO was in place in the 1990s, spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) declined from 22.1 percent to 18.5 percent by 2001. As a result, huge budget deficits became a budget surplus. Shortly after President Bush took office, the Congress unwisely let PAYGO expire, causing an explosion in government spending and yearly budget deficits. Our national debt grew by $3 trillion over this period, and by 2005, spending had clawed its way back to 20.1 percent of GDP.''

Let's think about that a moment: $3 trillion increase since this President has been in office. What does that mean?

We roughly spend $450 billion a year today on interest alone. That's $1.2 billion a day. But let's just take the last 5 years since 2001, or 6 years since 2001, and look at how that $3 trillion is impacting our budget.

For instance, today, if we had continued down the path and just had a balanced budget, not necessarily a surplus but just a balanced budget, we wouldn't be spending $150 billion-plus extra in interest. Think of what that would do. We are spending today over 125, $130 billion in Iraq, supposedly, in Iraq, probably more than that. But, in essence, what we have done in the last 6\1/2\ years, or last 6 years and 9 months of this administration, under control of the Republican White House and under the control of the Republican leadership on the other side of the aisle, we have increased just our portion of the interest, not retiring the debt, by over $150 billion a year. That in itself, that figure itself, alone, is over six times what the entire budget of the State of Tennessee is in one year.

So I think it's time that we again reclaim for this Nation fiscal responsibility and continue to be the strong defense hawks that our caucus, our Blue Dogs, has been.

My friend from Arkansas, in the presentation earlier I had intended to discuss the 12 individuals that lived in counties that I represent before they lost their lives in Iraq. Four of those actually were not in my district, but there are 12 individuals that either live in the county I represent or in the district I represent.

I made a commitment some time ago that each day that when I said my prayers for those in special prayer need, that these families would always be a part of my prayer list. And I keep a list of those in my wallet, of those individuals. I hope I don't have to add a new name. Occasionally I'll have to take this out and redo it and add a name to it. I hope I don't have to add another name until we're able to settle and resolve and bring our soldiers home from Iraq and from Afghanistan.

These individuals have honored us and our Nation, and I think that we, as Americans, need to be sure that we honor their name and their families, and that we keep them in our hearts and constantly in our minds so that we don't ever forget the commitment that they gave, and they gave all for this Nation.

How can anyone in this Chamber or any American let politics, partisan politics, have a play in the decisionmaking as we talk about our young men and women who are willing to give their life and those who've given their lives on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I think that it's time. I travel my district and I tell folks that bipartisanship seems to have escaped us here in Washington. I talked to some of the folks who were here years ago and people who visited Washington saying that Democrats and Republicans would get together after a debate, whether they disagreed on certain issues, but that they would get together after that debate and spend time in the evening as friends or families would spend time together. That needs, we need to recapture that here in the U.S. House.

I read a book recently, or a quote in a book recently that was made by that great fellow from Britain, Mr. Churchill. He'd been speaking at Fulton, Missouri in 1951, where he gave his Iron Curtain Speech. And he and two or three other individuals were still on the train and still awake. Mr. Truman, the President, and a bunch of his cabinet and staff had retired for the evening. And they were talking about how the circumstances of our life and circumstances of our birth influenced our success or failures in the world that we lived in. And what Churchill said is that: If I were to be born again, I'd want to be born in America. We need to change America to where people like Churchill and others will be saying again: I'd like to be an American if I was born someplace today.

I don't think that's happening today in the world. We've got to change that, and I think the partisan rancor that we have here on the floor is prohibiting us from projecting to the rest of the world and to the American citizens the best of America. And I hope that this compact will help lead us all into being less partisan and more bipartisan on this floor and in America.

If the gentleman would yield, what that means is we're asking the Iraqis to occupy their own nation instead of our American soldiers. That, in fact, is what we're asking. We're asking the Iraqis to be their own policemen instead of the policemen on the beat being the American soldier. I think that should be expected by everyone, regardless of politics.

In essence what that component says is that in a bipartisan way we want to be sure that the Iraqis have a surge in leadership for their own country, take over the control of their own country; that the Iraqis develop the military that they need to occupy their own country themselves. And, secondly, that they become the policemen in the field, on the roads, riding the Humvees, and not our soldiers. I thank my friend from Arkansas for each week that you bring to the American public the views, the ideas of the fiscal conservative Blue Dog Democrats, deficit hawks and defense hawks here on the House floor.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Warren County, Tennessee. Nestled in the heart of the foothills of the Cumberland Plateau, Warren County is a proud piece of the Tennessee tradition.

Warren County takes its name from Major General Joseph Warren, a hero of the American Revolution who earned the rank of Major General and was killed in the battle of Bunker Hill. The County continued to serve as a staging ground for great historical moments through the Civil War, when General Forrest's brigade camped in Warren County before they launched an attack on the Federal Army that resulted in the capture of twelve hundred Union Soldiers, including a General.

But Warren County has far more to offer the State than its rich history alone. From the scenic beauty of Rock Island to the Highland Rim Classic bicycle race in McMinnville, Warren County has something for sportsmen and outdoorsmen alike. McMinnville, Morrison, Viola and Dibrell all make up the diverse landscape. Perhaps the best view of Warren County, however, comes from the annual ``boogie,'' or sky diving event that gives brave participants a unique perspective on this great Tennessee County.

Warren County is also home to the nursery capital of the world, McMinnville, Tennessee. McMinnville and all of Warren County's growers have made Tennessee proud for a number of years, marking McMinnville as a city known for being ``always in bloom.''

I am proud today to wish a happy bicentennial to the people of Warren County, and hope that they will continue to enjoy the blessings of their place in middle Tennessee for years to come.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the ``Tullahoma Americans,'' a little league baseball team of 11- and 12-year-olds from Coffee County, Tennessee, that captured the State title this month. Tullahoma American has had remarkable success in the past but has not held this title for many years. For all their hard work and dedication, these young little-leaguers have achieved an incredible feat in reclaiming the championship for Tullahoma, and I could not be prouder of them.

My sincere congratulations go out to the players: Josh Brandon, Justin Brandon, Justin Brown, Trey Burks, Alex Butaud, Reed Gabriel, Marquel Hickerson, Zach Lampkin, Ryan Lawson, Brad Roepke, Sam Tomes, and Caleb Zidan, as well as their coaches, Warner Tomes, Troy Shelton, and Mike Thompson, for a championship well-earned. Head Coach Mike Thompson also deserves congratulations not only for shepherding the boys to a winning season, but for dedicating 9 years of service to the Little League institution.

Little League baseball has a long history in America. As early as the late 19th century, young American children played baseball in groups affiliated with adult club teams, but it was not until the late 1930s that Carl Stotz founded and named the ``Little League'' we are all familiar with today. Since then, young baseball players have honed their skills as well as their character on baseball diamonds across the country. Little League teaches teamwork, sportsmanship, and the value of hard work.

Our Tullahoma State Champions exemplify all of these qualities, and I am proud today to stand and congratulate the team, their coaches, and families for their extraordinary effort. It is my sincere hope that this tradition will continue for young people across the State for years to come.